Paterson: Maybe some workers will get their jobs back

Mentioned almost offhandedly in Gov. David Paterson’s 90-minute edit board appearance in Rochester is the news that perhaps a few of the workers who received layoff notices might end up keeping their jobs — but only if their personal or family circumstances are especially dire. Or at least that’s all we can construe from this exchange, which comes near the end of a discussion of Paterson’s battles with state worker unions, culminating in the recent reductions:

P: I’m going to look at, over the holidays, maybe some of the more egregious situations, because we may have more savings that we thought. And perhaps people who were going to be put in very difficult situations, we might want to give them their jobs back.

Q: When you say a few, are you talking dozens, hundreds?

P: No, you know — I’m just saying special cases where people have diseases, or numbers of children that will go without health insurance, that kind of thing. They would be impacted more severely than — I mean, it’s going to be a severe impact for anybody to lose their job, and I feel terrible about it. But I have to honestly ask all of you, what other choice did the public employee unions leave me?

“I don’t even know how to respond to that, to tell you the truth,” said CSEA spokesman Steve Madarasz, adding that the union has argued for months that layoffs are unnecessary and would exacerbate the effects of the state downturn.

We’re seeking a fuller explanation from Paterson’s office. Here’s the full session; the bit above comes at the 30-minute mark: